Kalinga Ancient Trade Routes

Kedah (Kataha)

Probable Scholars say

Kedah was a stopping place on the Malay Peninsula where old sailing ships waited for the right winds. A Chinese monk passed through it twice on his voyage to India and back.

Kedah was a stopping place on the Malay Peninsula. A Chinese Buddhist monk named Yijing passed through it. He was sailing on his way to India. Old records say he went “northwest to Kie-tcha.” Then he sailed on, past the Nicobar Islands, to Tamralipti. On his way home, he landed at the same place again. [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]

For scholars

Only one source was read here. So the tier stops at Probable. Scholars usually match this old name, Kie-tcha, to the Bujang Valley area of Kedah, Malaysia today. That reading comes from Dayalan’s retelling of an old 1894 translation. It is not a direct check of the original text. No source here gives a coordinate. The position given is a rough guess at the Bujang Valley dig area, read from a map. [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]

Facts

Coordinates
5.75°, 100.40°
[Natural Earth, 1, n.d.]
  1. *Natural Earth, 1:50m Physical and Cultural Vectors*. n.d. public domain
Modern name
Bujang Valley area, Kedah, Malaysia
Also known as
Kie-tcha (Yijing's transliteration), Kataha
Region
southeast-asia

Routes through Kedah (Kataha)

  • Palembang to Kedah

    After Palembang, the monk Yijing's ship carried him on to Kedah on the Malay Peninsula. From there he waited for the winds to carry him further west.

    [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]
    1. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019 , offprint p. 27 ('... visited Fo-che, Mo-lo-yu and Sumatra ... proceeded northwest to Kie-tcha.' Dayalan cites Chavannes's 1894 translation of Yijing's account; Kie-tcha is read as Kedah.)

  • Kedah to Tamralipti

    From Kedah, Yijing's ship sailed past the Nicobar Islands and on to Tamralipti, the great port at the top of the Bay of Bengal. He later sailed the same route home again.

    [Dayalan, 2019, offprint p. 27]
    1. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019 , offprint p. 27 ('Then, he proceeded east and reached the Nicobar Islands ... Proceeding northwest from these islands, Yi-Jing reached Tamralipti.' Returning to China 'he took the same route, landing again at Kie-tcha and Fo-che.' Dayalan cites Chavannes's 1894 translation of Yijing's account.)
Scholar notes

Kie-tcha (also read Kataha/Kedah) is usually identified with the Bujang Valley / Merbok estuary region of Kedah, Malaysia; this follows Dayalan's paraphrase of Chavannes's 1894 translation of Yijing, not a primary reading. Only one source was read, so the tier stops at Probable. No coordinate is given in the source; position approximates the Bujang Valley archaeological area, read from a map.

  1. Duraiswamy Dayalan. *Ancient Seaports on the Eastern Coast of India: The Hub of the Maritime Silk Route Network*. in Acta Via Serica 4. 2019 , offprint p. 27 (Yijing 'proceeded northwest to Kie-tcha. Then, he proceeded east and reached the Nicobar Islands ... Proceeding northwest from these islands, Yi-Jing reached Tamralipti.' Returning to China 'he took the same route, landing again at Kie-tcha and Fo-che.' Citing Chavannes's 1894 translation.)